Update: I was unfortunately not aware of Shamus Young's severe criticism of Fallout 3 available here to link in the original piece and I regret that. It dovetails rather nicely with what I've written and it's much better executed than my piece. I strongly recommend anyone...

Okay, let me start out by stating this, and stating it BOLDLY- I am not a zelda fan. There's just something about this series that doesn't grip me like so many other people. Ocarina of Time? Looks like Super Mario 64 on crack. Wind Waker? What is this, Cartoon Network! Minish Cap? A cap full of bullsh#t. And yes, I have played those games. Now, I'm not saying that I hated theseries. It's just, well, I thought it was overrated. Well, when I was presented with my wii on my birthday, I was just about the most hyped-up dude in South America. I jumped around, did the electric slide, praised god for creating the parents that created the dude that founded Nintendo, and sung the Star Spangled Banner! Until I saw that extra game that my parents had bought with it..... My mood changed from "OMGTHISISAWESOME" to "OMGIMGUNNAKILLMYSELF". After going through the 5 stages of accepting fate, I decided to give the game a try........thank god I didn't kill myself. Because If I had, I wouldn't have expirienced one of the most exciting, most diverse, and surprising addictive games EVER made.

First off, RIGHT when you boot the game, you be treated to a cool little menu, and from there, after the usual "beginning of Zelda game" conversation with another character, you'll be introduced to a feature left out of the past few zelda's.....but I'm not here to let you know what that is (even though you probably already do), but instead, to enlighten you on how damn beautiful this game looks while your doing it. Simply put, games like Resistance and Gears might have the horsepower, but Twilight Princess ditches all that "makeup" and gives you a game that really is PRETTY to look at. The character models are well-rounded, and look just real enough to retain that zelda "feel", and the enviroments you explore through are simply breathtaking, not considering there's absolutely NO loading.Take that Fight Night 3!

The sound, while I'm not a big zelda fan, is pretty catchy, and the controls, once you get used to them if you're new, you never forget, even though I would have like to have had the wii sensing thing done just a bit better. However, the thing I liked most about this game, is the personality in it, and the way it lets you do things YOUR way. (In other words, open-world) I don't know if it's me, but I fell in love with a certain new character, and and the GIGANTIC world you travel in is nothing short of amazing. I've had this game for about 4 weeks now, and I don't think I've seen 25% of what it has to offer. Almost everything is interactive, and for a moment, had me thinking I was was playing Oblivion in 3rd Person. (Only this game was better) I also love the fact that they have included more RPG-related things in this iliteration than any other, and I actually felt like I was getting better, as opposed to Link. Speaking of him, If there was a duel between Link and Master Chief, Master Chief's green ass would get mistaken for spinach after Link is done with him. Yeah, Link finally looks like a badass. (As do everything else, considering the tone's darker.)

But, suffice to say, I do have complaints with the game, no matter how small. To start, the game's story, while good, is a little confusing at some parts (especially the middle), but that problem might surface on me, since, as I'm not the biggest fan, and probably missed a few key points from past games. And the difficulty.......yes, the difficulty. Sometimes, I feel like the monsters you face have no brains, and sometimes, I feel like I'm getting cheated like a math test. And the dungeons. I never liked them. Never will. And my hospital bill from a migrane won't solve a thing. In other words, the difficulty is a little off-balanced, but it never feels like you can't beat it. I also love those instances when I finally do figure out a puzzle, but why make me go through a stroke just to get to that satisfaction?

Overall though, this game has made me finally understand why the Zelda series is so great. It never loses focus on what it's trying to accomplish with the gamer, and never relieves the player of complete control and freedom. I really wanted to slam this game, and call it a complete piece of garbage, and give it the worst score I could, but in the end, I just couldn't. I couldn't deny this game of it's rightful score. I couldn't award any other game that coveted "Game of the Year". And you know why? Because it completely deserves it.